Back to Greenock to wave off our guest

All good things come to and end as they say. Bad things too of course. Anne having to fly home could be categorised either way depending upon your viewpoint. This meant leaving the tricky berth in Holy Loch and going back to James Watt Dock so that she has an easy(ish) connection to Glasgow airport. More on the (ish) later.

As we departed our walkway berth, heads popped out of boats like rabbits out of holes, their level of concern was directly related to how close to us they were berthed. Determined to show that lardy single screw Nordhavns are not that dangerous, we slipped the lines, wriggled out and backed up the fairway between the pontoons without touching the thrusters. It was a matter of pride.

Luckily the weather held for a flybridge run across to Greenock and back onto "our berth" in James Watt Dock, another huge ocean voyage:

 The obscene superyacht Fountainhead had gone. Only the much prettier Lady Rose remained. Wonder what their berthing invoice will look like? On the way, another liner was gracing Clydeport:

or maybe not gracing. Not the best looking one we've come across.

We had an old lifeboat thread going on here a while ago and can now add to it. This guy is on the hard standing and is being given a major make-over and repaint by some dedicated folks:

This one was converted for pleasure use and still looks good despite the conversion work:

She is rare too - only 3 of them were built. For the insanely curious, have a look at Clyde class lifeboats as she is very different to most RNLI craft that you will be used to.


Anne was duly escorted to Paisley Gilmour street station as we could not trust her to get the right train / get the right bus afterwards / stay awake en route. We duly watched her get on the bus to the airport hoping she could manage the getting off bit. Transport to Glasgow airport from the west is rubbish on a Sunday - hence the (ish) comment. One train an hour and one bus an hour from Paisley too. Only the connection time is 4 minutes. Luckily the train was on time and the bus was fashionably late. Public transport connections indeed. The Captain had the pleasure of the opinion of some locals about the bus service too. They used words we would not put in here, in an accent that is impossible to type. McGills are not popular around here as a bus operator it seems.